Funny thing - I’m one of the exceptions, mainly due to making lemonade, lemon meringue pie, limoncello, etc. out of my ‘life handed me lemons’ circumstances.
I’m autistic, some of the symptoms for me was the inability to read non-verbal communication and create small talk. Hence I didn’t really ever date successfully. Only ended up married (at 47) thanks to some friends that set us up. So all that money I would have spent on raising children - I didn’t.
I didn’t get my engineering degree until my early 30’s and lived in poverty until then. Hence, I was so used to living minimally, that I continued to do so, even as my income increased - a lot. I saved all that extra money and invested a lot of it. I retired from full time work at 56, but continue part time in my current gig. I don’t really need the money, but the work is fun, challenging, and I hang out with a LOT of really smart engineers (MIT PhDs, etc.). Not bad for a guy with a BSEE at a no-name university.
I was also fortunate for many years by being around people that recognized the strengths of my autism and let me solve really complex healthcare technology problems on a large scale. I feel I was born to do it.
bot post?
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Damn - you totally nailed it @orthwyrm
I have read a few of the the users other posts. They could be cross posting stories from other sites BUT the articles aren’t showing elsewhere and the text reads as human written not AI. Nothing they post cross-references anything else; it goes to show that even AI falls down when it comes to consistency. Proof-of-work on the part of humans will defeat the machine gods.
If they are upset by me saying they are a bot they will say so won’t they?
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What makes you guys say bot post?
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Reads like one, but also the user has strange activity; they make multiple posts a day but leave zero comments.
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Bamboozled me!
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Yeah, they're getting pretty convincing these days!
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Seems like it but hard to tell
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IBM and other prominent companies spearheaded a wage suppression scheme in the 1970s, as engineers were becoming too solidly white collar.
Also happens in academia, see discussions by guys like Eric Weinstein.

Congrats on the path, good to share and have people read who don't fit in. I appreciate you.
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Thank you for sharing your story. Really interesting and may give hope to other ‘mature’ graduates or/and those with neurodiversity.
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There is no limit to how fast you can burn through money. People who can't control themselves and their spending habits will lead themselves towards bankruptcy, regardless of their income.
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It looks like you found the good ending. I wasn't expecting the post you wrote based on the title you chose, but I'm happy I clicked on it and read your story. It was an interesting read.
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sure bro
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Engineers build, some engineers found companies, most don’t. I believe to become “rich”, you must take risks like founding a company. Simply working for a company as an engineer isn’t enough. I say this as an engineer who works for a company. I’m paid well, but I’m not going to become uber-rich
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I know you know you're not saying otherwise but most founders don't end up rich. Most fail. I'm practically living on a wire when most of my engineering peers who saved aggressively are fiat millionaires who have normal jobs and live very leisurely lives. That isn't to say I haven't saved something. It just isn't money, it's intangibles - skills, experience, and mindset stuff.
Simply working for a company as an engineer isn’t enough.
It is if you start as an early employee at a company that blows up. The richest people I know in tech got rich this way. QA eng at the last company I worked at was employee #1 there. They owned 2% when it exited for 100m ... but being an early employee comes with tradeoffs too.
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I know you know you're not saying otherwise but most founders don't end up rich. Most fail.
You're right, most don't. For every founder that does succeed, there's a ton who don't. Companies fail all the time. We just see the successes more often.
I'm practically living on a wire when most of my engineering peers who saved aggressively are fiat millionaires who have normal jobs and live very leisurely lives. That isn't to say I haven't saved something. It just isn't money, it's intangibles - skills, experience, and mindset stuff.
Agreed, there's different targets and goals that folks can have. It comes down to how you measure your wealth/success/etc.
Simply working for a company as an engineer isn’t enough.
It is if you start as an early employee at a company that blows up. The richest people I know in tech got rich this way. QA eng at the last company I worked at was employee #1 there. They owned 2% when it exited for 100m ... but being an early employee comes with tradeoffs too.
True, I guess I meant joining an existing mid- to large-sized company as an engineer isn't going to get you any significant percentage of equity, so you're going to have to "get rich" via salary, basically.
I think the ultimate takeaway is risk -> reward, sometimes. Founders, early employees, etc. all take risks. Sometimes they pay off, other times they don't.
ETA: can't wait for quote reply to land... LOL
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risk -> reward
For sure. Greater risk, greater reward potential, but also greater loss potential.
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Also lmk if you're ever underindexed on risk lol
We could use another full time engineer and you've been doing excellent work.
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Wow thank you, that is something to really consider! Let me mull it over and get back to you!
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